We are fat, sick and tired because of the way we live. Doctors agree in theory that a healthier lifestyle is the key to prevention. But in practice they rely on drugs. The sane solution is being serious about tackling the cause.

The sane or silly test

Deciding on the best way to stay healthy can often seem awfully complicated and confusing. For instance, should you stop eating eggs, and butter to protect your heart and replace them with low fat foods from the supermarket that usually contain added sugar?

Thinking about the problem in terms of sane or silly can help. So, the first two have been in our diets for 1000s of years, while the last one is an industrial product that is likely to push up your blood glucose. Pretty obvious that butter and eggs are sane, while packaged low fat is silly and the latest science agrees.

People and ideas we think are sane

Doctors who diagnose and prescribe based on who you are and what your life is like, not just on blood tests.

Dieticians and doctors who don’t warn that cutting carbohydrate consumption and replacing it with fat is dangerous and unhealthy.

Consultants who take a positive interest when you tell them a diet or some non-drug therapy greatly improved your symptoms.

Clinicians who don’t dismiss placebo effects as worthless.

Government policy that doesn’t just urge people to eat more healthily but puts proper money into schemes to help them do it.

People and ideas we think are silly

Commentators who believe randomised controlled trials are the only valid way of proving a treatment works and is safe.

Commentators who turn a blind eye to the evidence that many prescribed drugs are neither effective nor safe.

The lip service paid to the benefits of lifestyle in cutting disease risk that is rapidly followed by repeat prescribing.

The belief that everyone can still absorb the same amount of minerals and vitamins from their food when they are 60 as they did at 20.

That the best way to treat older people is to give them a standard amount of drugs to treat each disorder as it emerges

Calling for non-drug treating to be properly tested in trials and then ignoring the results when they are shown to be safe and effective.

Tell us your favourite examples of policies, people and products that are sane or silly, using the comments below!

My lab results are in, and they are, on blanace, not much improved. I think. The changes I effected since my prior panel panel 3 months ago:1) Lost 20 lbs2) Ingest 6,000mg of fish oil for a total of 1200mg (total) of DHA and EPA/day3) Ingest 500mg of Slo-Niacin/day (with 125oz of water/day)4) Ingest 6,000mg of Vitamin D/day (Changed to the proper Vitamin D soy capsule from the powdered tablet)5) Eat a large handful of almonds/day6) Exercise hard (weight training and cardio intervals for a minimum of 90 minutes/day).The (worsened) numbers:1) Total Cholesterol: 269 (from 267)2) LDL Cholesterol: 186 (from 175)The (improved) numbers:3) Triglycerides: 201 (from 280)4) HDL Cholesterol: 43 (from 36)Unfair to ask you, I know, but I am frustrated. What do I do wrong? What can I do more? I am VERY reluctant to take a statin, as I have tried many, all with terrible side-effects. And, fwiw, I started today on my wheat-free diet.Thank you for your guidance,David

Actually Dimitris, don’t worry about cholesterol. Its all junk science, the only one that matters is getting HDL as high as possible (good fat gives you that) and keeping Trigs as low as possible, LDL is junk science and its really depends on particle sizes.

Depending on where you live, Vitamin D is vital in the winter months, I live in the UK and receive hardly any sunshine during vinter so supplement with 5000 Iu / day

Keep doing what you’re doing, believe me your body is way better with those new results and will continue to improve.

Nafsica Sasa Kelly
Dirty blood is the cause of illness and premature ageing.
Humans will not face realities of life,they live in a dream world.If you tell the average sick person that all their physical troubles are due to a dirty blood stream …how insulted they get?they seek special treatments for their troubles.They still want to smoke,drink want their pains and health problems to disappear.
Man can purify his body and find perfect health again.Take responsibility is your life stop looking for magic solutions.I don’t get sick very often I do everything in moderation,I don’t care if people think I am boring my health is the most important factor to me.Best wishes.

Michael: what I am trying to do all my life is to be the best I can be, you don’t have to be a nutritionist or a dietician all you need is to be able to read English.I eat good mood foods oatmeal soups, walnuts salmon, lentils, cottage cheese, tofu, spinach, banana, fruits, potatoes, avocado. Mainly things that grow directly in or soil.These keep my blood clean and only produce waste acids at the rate my body can comfortably cope.I am not interested in competing or convincing, anybody.I wish people well,I hope we all make it.My understanding is the fundamental is slow accumulation in your tissues of waste acids and other chemicals.This comes about because you cannot excrete them as fast as they arrive in chemically processed food and meat,which you have become accustomed to eating too often large a quantity.In excess,these waste acids can form a sticky colloidal gel in your body circulation which cannot then flow freely through your tissues.This severely restricts metabolic work forcing you to replace damaged active cells with inactive fibrous tissues.That is the beginning of the destruction rheumatism can cause, slowly over several decades, in comfortable people culled temporary by their drugs vague and fleeting through the symptoms of this process are, doctors were never justified in ignoring it.They have simply refused to take any active part in the one debate that matters, the quality and balance of your diet, Nutrition takes practically no place in the medical curriculum.At the same time, the knowledge must retain a level of opacity and mystique as to render it inaccessible to others.Your life is a very precious reversal of the accumulation process is your best chance of preventing far more worse disease doctors understand little and treat poorly.Respect yourself enough to know you deserve the very best.